Indonesia : Newmont agreed to pay Indonesia $30 million in an effort to resolve a dispute with the government, which alleges the company polluted the sea near its mine on Sulawesi island. The money, which will be paid over 10 years, will be used to set up an environmental monitoring and assessment program in the region. The criminal case centers on interpretations of pollution tests. Villagers living near the mine complained to police in July 2004 of health problems after eating fish from nearby Buyat Bay.

Bloomberg

2004

Indonesia : Accused by residents in Minahasa regency in the province of causing serious water pollution by its improper waste system, triggering the outbreak of Minamata disease that has killed 30 villagers since 1996. Police decided to suspend its operations.

Disinformation: Rick Ness, an employee of the Newmont Mining Corporation who the Indonesian government has accused of dumping dangerous waste into a shallow bay in Sulawesi. Since 2004, Rick Ness "has waged a full-time PR and legal campaign to clear his name, with Newmont backing him up at a burn rate of up to $1 million a month." When an infant's death was blamed on the pollution, Ness and Newmont employed "textbook crisis communication. Ness did media interviews and spoke before sympathetic audiences such as the American Chamber of Commerce. He mocked the [Indonesian] government's evidence as 'junk science.' He extolled studies that he said supported the company's argument -- one conducted by the Australian lab CSIRO (and funded by Newmont). ... Meanwhile, Newmont threw its full legal weight at the critics," including independent and government scientists. Ness was acquitted by a provincial court, but the case is now before Indonesia's Supreme Court.: